Elizabeth Avetovna Shakhatuni, the first female aircraft designer in the USSR, was born December 22, 1911 in Yerevan in the family of a politician and a teacher.
After school Yelizaveta Shakhatuni studied at the engineering department of Yerevan State University for two years. In 1930 she entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, where she was immediately admitted to the second course. In parallel with her studies she was engaged in the gliding club. Having graduated from the institute in 1935 Yelizaveta Shakhatuni began working in the aviation industry, got a job at the plant "Ilyushin Aircraft" as a specialist in armament and equipment. Six months later she transferred to a civilian enterprise - a small glider factory in Tushino, where she worked from 1937 to 1939. There she met the head of the design bureau (KB) - the famous aircraft designer Oleg Antonov.
